You're Napoleon Brandy...

[fajrdrako]

One of my favourite things is John Barrowman, and another favourite thing is the music of Cole Porter, so put them together and I'm very happy indeed. And I often listen to John Barrowman's CD of Cole Porter songs with joy and delight.

Maybe too much. For the past twenty-four hours I can't get MYou're the Top out of my head. It is, as the French would say, de trop.

At least I know now that I know all the lyrics.

Gotta find something to listen to that will put this out of my head....

Comments

Re: Red bicycle...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There are shows that everyone thinks are well written that, for whatever reason, I haven't watched, or haven't watched much of, or haven't tried to watch at all: West Wing, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (even though I love Joss Whedon's writing...) So it isn't *just* good writing that grabs me.

And I don't even think Torchwood is as well written as I want it to be, though its concepts are great and it has attributes that compensate.

Re: Red bicycle...

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I've watched none of those shows, except for the three episodes of Buffy some friends forced on me once. Just never made me obsess at all.

.. Maybe it's good writing in combination with characters I can obsess about. Though I'm still trying to figure out what makes me obsess over a character. There's no single matching criteria.

The more I re-watch Torchwood for my random recap rambles, the more I notice that it's not actually all that well written or at least that parts of the writing don't agree with me. Gwen, for example.

Re: Red bicycle...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I love thinking about the things that make me love one show and not love another. It's quirky. Granted, I fell in love with Captain Jack Harkness, and the appeal of that character on many levels has a lot to do with it - his style, his voice, his witty lines, his story. But it isn't just that.

I will tolerate things in Torchwood (and enjoy them) that would make me turn off another show.

I am certainly enjoying Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, both well written (on the whole) but don't feel the same passion to watch episodes more than once, or write about the characters, or to think, talk and anlyze them till any sane person would be overdosed.

So while there are things about Torchwood that I don't like - Abaddon, for example - and the way so many stories only occur because of criminal acts or absurd stupidity on the part of one of the Torchwood team - somehow this doesn't even affect my general delight in the show. My total lack of boredom. You'd think after almost a year of obsessing I'd be a little more casual about it, wouldn't you? But no.

It's similiar with my love of Doctor Who, though I don't love Ten as I loved Nine, and "The Last of the Time Lords" shook my faith to the core. (In an interesting sort of way.)

Re: Red bicycle...

[chatona.livejournal.com]

I watched a few episodes of both Heroes and Battlestar Galactica and I enjoyed both but didn't really get into it so I'm not watching it anymore...

Actually, I've been meaning to ask. What exactly was it that shocked you so much in that episode?

Re: Red bicycle... first wheel

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

What exactly was it that shocked you so much in that episode?

I've been trying to analyze it, or to find a way to explain why it bothered me so much.

It has to do with my interpretation of the characters and what brought me into the show - which was primarily the relationships between the Doctor and his companions, and specifically between the Doctor and Jack: I loved the slash, but it went a little beyond that, to the live-journey Jack was undertaking, and the way he went from rootlessness to discipleship. I also loved the notion of the Doctor as champion of earth, crusty protector and lover of humans. I had a certain mindset of how I wanted the characters to be, how I wanted things to go.

"The Last of the Time Lords" shattered my hopes and illusions for these reasons:

- the Doctor did not love Jack, but treated him coldly. This was okay in "Utopia", I liked that a lot - I thought it was a story of the Doctor overcoming his prejudice. But at the end of TLOTTL I don't think that really happened - the situation between them was left ambigiuous, not resolved. I wanted to see a 'thank you' from the Doctor to Jack, or a sense that he understood or appreciated all Jack had done for him - dying on the Game Station, waiting/searching for him for 138 years, living for a year in bondage because the Doctor wanted to keep the Master alive.

I would have been happy with a smile or a hug or an assurance (however tenuous) that Jack still loved the Doctor. But the focus of the episode was entirely on the Doctor's love of the Master. He is indifferent (or callous) to Jack's repeated death and discomfort, but full of concern for the Professor's headache. He is distrustful and brusque with Jack. If Jack was returning to do his duty at the end (which I like a lot, just as I liked it at the end of "Captain Jack Harkness") I wanted a hint that it wasn't a casual choice, that he wasn't doing it because he was indifferent to the Doctor.

- I loved Martha, and wanted the Doctor to love her, too; in fact, I am convinced he did love her, but couldn't express it, or allow himself to acknowledge it, for various reasons, including his love of Rose and what happened to Rose. At the end, again, it was all about the Doctor's love of the Master, which didn't satisfy my sense of romance with regard to Martha and Jack. Instead, the Doctor talks about how he is eternally alone and has *no one* - with Jack and Martha standing right there.

- I wanted the Doctor to be protector of earth, but in TLOTTL he was the protector of the Master at Earth's expense. He set in motion a series of disasters for humans - the return of the Master to Earth (because he had the TARDIS), the subjugation of earth (because the Doctor wouldn't let Jack kill the Master), the creation of the Toclafane, the return of the Master to our time, the decimation of Earth, etc. - but the Doctor's level of responsibility was not addressed at all. And he didn't save the day: it was the faith of the people of Earth who saved the day, with Martha's heroic help. And the Doctor forgave the Master, which he had no right to do on behalf of Earth, however much he meant it personally. That the Doctor loved the Master, I can understand. But as a moral choice, to my eyes, he betrayed his friends and the people of Earth to a madman who was making them suffer.

to be continued...

Re: Red bicycle... second wheel

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I could have rationalized all of the above, until the Doctor broke the Vortex Manipulator and trapped Jack on 21st century Earth, which he had no right to do - and the reason he gave implied insult and/or punishment when Jack had done so much for him, and heroically.

Bottom line: the Doctor fell from the pedestal I had him on, and failed to appreciate Jack or Martha. I like a dysfunctional hero, but I like a show to be clearly heroic, and the way the Doctor was venerated on the one hand, and equated with the Master on the other, discomforted me.

Basically, now, I can't reconcile my Jack/Doctor love with what happened in that episode, so I'm left with a paradox, an insoluble dilemma - which may be resolved in the show next season. I hope so. I'd be happy with very little. A smile and a hug would do it.

Meanwhile, I deal with it by separating Nine and Ten in my mind as separate entities. Nine was wonderful, dangerous, foolish and wise; he loved Jack and Rose. Ten is wonderful, dangerous, foolish, and random: his ability to love is broken.

Hmm. This was not brief. I hope it was coherent.

[chatona.livejournal.com]

That was coherent and it made quite a lot of sense, too. I agree with pretty much every argument you have against the Doctor.

Only, I never saw the Doctor as the protector of the earth or anything. To me, he only ever was a character, loveable and crazy and alien and dark, all those things. Ten added dysfunctional to it in ways that Nine didn't, but that only adds to my love for him 'cause I like dysfunctional. I really do.

I think the difference is that I only very recently got into this fandom at all and I watched a large number of episodes in a very short period of time and only after I started designing a picture of the Doctor in my mind.

So the way I see the Doctor? Combines all these things and therefore, I don't have a problem to reconcile anything. His relationship with Jack is broken and dysfunctional, as is the Doctor in general. He's wonderful and foolish and funny, but he's also very, very broken.

.. Does that make sense?

I really need a Doctor!icon... >_> I need more icon space. Meh.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like dysfunctional, on the whole - and I love some of the Doctors dysfunctional and dark moments. I love his line in "School Reunion" that he used to have so much mercy. That gives me chills even to remember it! Great moment. I love the line about him being fire and ice and rage. I just don't like it at the end of TLOTTL, when it's shattering the relationships I wanted to much!

And yes, I'm trying to see it as broken but continuous.... So far I haven't put the picture together in a way that works for me, but I think it will come - depending what they so in season 4. Or, of course, beyond.

I know also that what I want to see (i.e., more relationshippy stuff between Jack and the Doctor and Martha and the Doctor) isn't necessarily what other fans want to see. Because I have a pash for the Doctor myself, I want to see it vicariously gratified through them. I want them to pander to my love of Jack/Doctor slashiness - functional, dysfunctional, or otherwise.

Doctor icons are wonderful things, but Jack icons are even better.